Apparatus and techniques for receiving and processing an optical signal. In one implementation, an optical receiver is provided to include a delay line interferometer, an etalon, and a data estimator for estimating the data carried on a differentially modulated optical input signal. The delay line interferometer receives the input signal and issues differentially decoded constructive and destructive signals. The etalon filters the constructive signal with a transmission stopband imposed over the passband of the constructive signal. The bandwidth of the etalon stopband is selected based on the bandwidth of the modulation of the input signal in order to maximize received signal quality. The data estimator uses a difference between signals derived from the filtered constructive signal and the destructive signal for estimating data.